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Opinion Contributor

Obama in Disinformationland

The recent Pew Research Center poll revealed that 18 percent of respondents believe President Barack Obama is a Muslim, and a whopping 43 percent are unsure exactly what religion he practices. This is disheartening on many levels — not least that it illustrates an astonishing degree of ignorance.

It is unlikely, however, that Americans are dumber now than they were, say, 25 years ago. With more of us attending college, we might even be smarter. But higher education rates and easier access to information have been undermined by what amounts to a vast and insidious revolutionary force — a kind of anti-Enlightenment in which facts yield to rumor, reason to uninformed opinion and objectivity to proudly declared subjectivity.

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POLITICO 44

We swim in a limitless sea of misinformation, even disinformation, without much inclination to separate truth from fiction.

It isn’t that people are willfully ignorant — just willfully democratic. Many observers, going back to Alexis deToqueville, have remarked on America’s egalitarian spirit. While the huge differentials between the wealthiest Americans and everyone else may belie that spirit today, it is still alive and well in many nooks and crannies of the culture. Certainly in leveling the hierarchy of facts.

Daniel Moynihan famously said that everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts. Well, Moynihan spoke too soon. From the political shoutfests on TV and radio to the endless drone of sports radio callers to the millions of vanity blogs, opinion has rapidly become fact.

The idea that there is such a thing as verifiable truth — such as Obama being a Christian — is increasingly seen as elitist. It’s as if truth were yet another scheme by the powerful to impose their will on everyone else.

This overzealous sense of democracy has been encouraged by the right-wing, which has a stake in taking on science and evidence because these things are often likely to betray the tenets of their beliefs. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) offered one example of informational demagoguery on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, saying “I take the president at his word” that he is a Christian.

Steven Colbert has jokingly snarled that facts are liberal. The problem for the right is that facts are stubborn, so when you disagree with them — whether it is global warming or evolution or the effect of tax cuts on economic growth — you want to substitute your own “facts” for the allegedly objective ones.

Indeed, of the multitude of ways that President George W. Bush changed America, this may have been the most important. He helped legitimize the idea of individual truth. In doing so, he became the first president to challenge the old Enlightenment foundation on which this country was established.

Readers' Comments (357)

The fact is President Obama has lied to the American people repeatedly. A good example is the "numbers" that HHS came out with regarding the financials behind the healthcare Bill. The actuary for Medicare dismissed them as fantasy. Folks know he went to Harvard where we should have become competent. So most folks have to assume it is intentional.

And just like anyone who lies, who'll say anything to get his agenda rammed thru,..folks simply don't believe him anymore about anything..even his "supposed" faith.

I also think folks don't believe a church based on hate and division is a church. His belief system appears to be based on resentment and theft, what they call "social justice". Any one familiar with the ten commandments can pick out the glaring inconsistencies and hypocracy.

If he believes in nothing but himself..well, he should say so rather than keep up the charade. But that isn't the way he seems to operate.

The fact is President Obama has lied to the American people repeatedly. A good example is the "numbers" that HHS came out with regarding the financials behind the healthcare Bill. The actuary for Medicare dismissed them as fantasy. Folks knoow he went to Harvard where we should have become competent. So most folks have to assume it is intentional.

And just like anyone who lies, who'll say anything to get his agenda rammed thru,..folks simply don't believe him anymore about anything..even his "supposed" faith.

I also think folks don't believe a church based on hate and division is a church. His belief system appears to be based on resentment and theft, what they call "social justice". Any one familiar with the ten commandments can pick out the glaring inconsistencies and hypocracy.

If he believes in nothing but himself..well, he should say so rather than keep up the charade. But that isn't the way he seems to operate

Philip2 - It is apparent you've little experience with consistent people but I was all over Bush and the Republicans. Stop "defending" liars by essentailly saying "everyone" does it. Get out of the gutter of comparative misery and start demanding they ALL fulfill their oath of office or they get voted out at the next election.

If you had any sense of survival you'd get out of your circular thinking and join the Tea Party! You can make a better life for yourself than these "leaders" can.

@Chalone, We need to eliminate subsidizing wealthy individuals in all things and move to minimal fully portable income qualified benefits so we can sell all the public schools, Govt healthcare facilities, housing, disolve all the private/public partnerships and eliminate all subsidies, grants, tax credits and deductions etc..to Corporations and non-for-profits. This will create room for a "flat-tax alternative" and we'd be able to eliminate Corporate tax without it costing a penny.

We have to retract tax pay money from the market and retract the monetary base to avoid a repeat of the Russian "privatization" that went right into the private hands of the nomen klature. We'd have to reset regulation and oversite on a local, State and Federal level to remove anti-competitive manipulation of markets and reestablish government as "honest brokers" of competitive markets.

I ask all thinking Americans to join me in accepting as true only that information vetted by the DNC, the White House, our glorious Party majorities in Congress and, of course, the media, Faux News excepted. Believing anything else is wrong, regardless of how "truthy" it might be.

Cynicism is the retreat of the defeated and the paralyzed. Do your own homeowrk. Be thorough. Look at first source (original) material and reliable second source (you can tell by checking the original source) and understand in that, you'll be able to discern where best to put your energies to help return us to prosperity thru fiscal responsibility, contitutional limited government and competitive markets.

The genesis of "disinformation" begins with the "elite" who have dumbed down our schools with political correctness and distorted fact for purposes of multicultural sensitivity. One must think "correctly" or else. This explains the absence of critical thinking skills plaguing society. A media that willfully distorts fact for partisan purposes while sanctimoniously claiming impartiality further perpetuates disinformation. The election of Mr. Obama as President, the least experienced and least qualified man to hold the office in living memory (and a man clearly at odds with the values of the founders) is the inevitable result.

Its fun to see a snotty elitist tell Americans they are stupid. This is the sort of reaction you would expect when factual arguments fail to win the populace or laws you have just passed, such as Obamacare, fail to win popular support. The straw man the author uses is whether Obama is a Muslim. We are to believe he is not. But has he ever been a Muslim? Was he a Muslim when he was in Indonesia in his childhood? Does he have a Muslim name? Could he have changed his name if and when he changed his faith to Barry instead of Barrack? Did he attend a Black Liberation church in Chicago for two decades? While it may have been a Christian church, the philosophy of its spiritual leader, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, seems to have a lot in common with Farrahkan, who is decidedly Muslim, or at least what passes for Muslim in America's black community. And what has Obama done as President besides apologize to the Muslim world, instruct a dying NASA to make a priority of outreach to Muslim nations, support erection of a mosque at Ground Zero in New York, and chide Israel at every opportunity. How often have the American people seen Obama and his family attend church, or discuss his faith openly? What lead Obama to convert to Christianity - his grandparents? While he was in college? Was his visit to Pakistan as a young man to be a missionary for Christianity? You know, it really doesn't matter. What matters is that We the People are not the fools you want us to be, we will listen to whomever and read whatever we want and draw our own conclusions. Stay tuned for November 2nd when We the People pass judgement on this President and his policies.

Global warming facts? These facts seem to shift with the tide. There really are no global warming facts. Do you remember the global cooling facts of the jimmy carter era?

As far as Obama and his religion. I think he is trying to downplay all religion. It seems the progressives believe religion and religious followers look to a higher power than the democratic party and Obama. That doesn't bode well for them.

There is not a nickle's worth of difference between today's Teabagger/Birther/Republican party and the NAZI's during the 1930's!

The NAZI's spent millions of $ to DISTORT, LIE, DENY, and DISINFORMATION about everything...and it WORKED for a very long time.

Since January 2009, the Teabagger/Birther/Republican party have been on a similar mission. Armed with Andrew Breitbart, Matt Drudge, Rush Limbaugh, and FOX NEWS's 24/7/365 HATE OBAMA campaign...conservatives now are pleased as punch that a majority of stupid white people see Obama as a MUSLIM and a NON AMERICAN.

Joseph Goebells and Adolf Hitler are proud of the Teabagger/Birther/Republican party!

The Teabagger/Birther/Republican party learned well!

For the past five years, Matt Drudge has been voted THE MOST IMPORTANT news media person.

There is no MSM anymore, it's all about Thin skinned GAY MATT DRUDGE and his lover, Andrew Breitbart!